John Robinson

John Robinson was educated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he became a fellow, was ordained into the Church of England, and held a teaching post in Greek. He left Cambridge in order to marry (fellows then being banned from marrying). Robinson became a Puritan, events dictating that he flee in 1608 to the Netherlands, where he became a pastor to English dissenters who had fled to Amsterdam, then to others at the University of Leiden. Part of his flock, now referred to as the Pilgrim Fathers, emigrated to America in 1620. He died in 1625 in Leiden before circumstances allowed him to follow in their wake.